99designs Enters Next Phase of Growth Amidst Record Breaking Year – Discloses Key Financial Metrics for First Time in Company History

San Francisco

8 Mar 2016

World’s largest graphic design marketplace celebrates milestones and record year with unveil of rebrand

San Francisco – March 8, 2016 – 99designs, the world’s largest online graphic design marketplace, is celebrating a record-breaking year that includes the strongest performance in the history of the company.

In its eighth consecutive year of double-digit growth, 99designs achieved revenue approaching $60 million USD. The 99designs platform facilitates over 10,000 design contests every month, and in total, customers have launched over 500,000 design contests over the life of the company. 99designs’ fast growing 1-to-1 Projects feature, a workspace where a designer and a customer can collaborate individually on the platform, has grown 50% year-over-year and now accounts for 15% of the company’s total revenue. Designer payouts are now averaging $3.5 million USD per month and have have reached $142 million USD lifetime, best in class in the online graphic design world.

“We enjoyed our best year yet in 2015 as we achieved nearly $60 million USD in revenue, including a 50% year-over-year growth in our 1-to-1 Projects service that now accounts for 15% of all revenue,” said Patrick Llewellyn, President and CEO, 99designs. “Our success is driven by our single-minded focus on solving the significant challenges that exist in the global design market. By continually investing in the quality of our design community and the tools that allow them to connect and collaborate with customers online, we’re attracting a larger segment of premium customers to 99designs. This will fuel our growth in 2016 and beyond.”

99designs serves the design needs of entrepreneurs and SMBs looking to launch their brands and has a growing customer base of major brands and marketing agencies that are using 99designs to source graphic design, a validation of the quality of the freelance graphic designers on the platform.

Global expansion has been a central part of 99designs’ success and 2015 was buoyed by strong performance in key markets. The top five performing markets are The United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and Germany. A $10 million USD Strategic Series B financing round in early 2015, led by Recruit Strategic Partners to fuel 99designs’ expansion into Asia, has been highly successful as Japan has become 99designs’ fastest growing territory ever.

To celebrate these major achievements, 99designs is launching a rebrand that reflects the company’s evolution from a destination for startups to get a quick and affordable logo design into the world’s largest on-demand marketplace for quality graphic design.

“We want to own design online. We’ve created a better way to get design done for businesses big and small,” said Llewellyn. “This rebrand celebrates what is core to the success of 99designs: the relationships customers have with our curated design community – the quality of work being created on the platform and the connection that designers have with their designs.”

About the 99designs rebrand

Over the past eight years 99designs has become the world’s largest graphic design marketplace by making it easier for design to do the things it was born to do: build businesses, shift attitudes, and change lives. The rebrand keeps the focus on the customers, the designers, and the way they collaborate to make a difference. Sourced through the company’s signature design contest platform, the new logo was designed by Onripus and was chosen from over 4,000 entries from 556 designers around the world. It is one part of the look and feel of the new rebrand that celebrates the connection between the designer, the customer and 99designs.

99designs is the world’s largest on-demand design marketplace, connecting a global community of freelance designers with businesses of all sizes to complete their design needs. Created by designers for designers, 99designs began with a group of designers who were competing together to create the best designs. In 2008, that friendly competition grew into a unique design marketplace that has now become the world leader in online graphic design. 99designs is changing the lives of designers around the world by providing them with an opportunity to access customers globally, to earn income, and to build their portfolios. 99designs has paid out more than $142M to designers around the world to date at a rate of $3.5 million per month. Headquartered in Oakland, Calif., 99designs has operations in Australia, Germany, Japan, and Brazil.